It was a somber setting: in lower Manhattan, with its increased security presence and half-staff flags atop all government buildings, reminders of Boston’s marathon tragedy and New York’s own high alert were everywhere. But the Tribeca Film Festival—founded 12 years ago by Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal as a way to rebuild downtown after the terror attacks of Sept. 11—forged ahead. “We just can’t let fear take away our freedoms,” Rosenthal told us last night, emphatically, adding that “our hearts go out to everybody in Boston—we have to all carry on.”

And so to kickoff the festival, which formally begins its screenings, premieres, panels today, hosts Graydon Carter, Ronald Perelman, and De Niro welcomed guests to the steps of the State Supreme Courthouse, where two fields of glowing, pink-and-blue “flowers” warmed up the neoclassical chill. Gretchen Mol sprawled across one of the porch’s wicker settees—each piled with striped pillows featuring New York-centric quotes—while guests like Karolina Kurkova, Baz Luhrmann, Zac Posen, Christopher Walken, Victor Garber, Vera Wang, Tory Burch, Sienna Miller, Evan Rachel Wood, and Mira Sorvino mingled among the hydrangeas, sipping champagne and enjoying hors d’oeurves from Thomas Keller and his team of starched Per Se helpers.

The courthouse setting, meanwhile, reminded at least one person of jury duty they may or may not be evading: Ari Graynor, in floral Dolce & Gabbana, told Vanity Fair she doesn’t “even know where I’m supposed to do jury duty these days, if it’s Boston, New York, L.A.—I’m probably going to get put in prison for evading it in all states.” Speaking of Boston, her native city, she sent her deepest sympathies: “It’s devastating, for all of us,” she said. “For everyone, everywhere. But especially, you know, when [it’s] home—and the marathon is such a huge part of everyone’s life there . . .” Graynor was in Boston the day before the attacks, before leaving for New York to serve as a juror in the Tribeca fest.

Other guests directly involved with the festival include Whoopi Goldberg, who has a film bowing about a 1950s female stand-up comedian, Moms Mabely. She partially raised money for it on Kickstarter, and copped to being nervous about people seeing it: “I am actually trying to get over the fact that it’s in a festival at all—this is a totally different place for me,” she told us, laughing. “I don’t know, child!”

__Christine Baranski__was an early arrival at the event, turning heads in a knockout tangerine-y red sheath dress. “Well, they say color is in for spring,” she told a group of fellow guests. “And this isn’t a dress your wear unless color is in for spring.” Baranski, currently starring as *The Good Wife’*s Diane Lockhart, will appear as the subject of next month’s [Proust Questionnaire](/culture/features/2011/08/proust-slide-show-201108)—a *Vanity Fair* feature she says she’s long wondered how she’d answer. Not that idly filling it out in her head prepared her for the call: “I had a total O.M.G. moment!” she told us. Her advice to future Proust subjects? Keep it simple: “My list of dislikes kept getting longer and longer. I thought, I have to get sex traffickers on here! And animal poachers! And. . . .”
Baranski also admired sets of striped pillows with New York-themed quotes embroidered upon them, which were strewn on settes throughout the party. But while she admitted she wanted to tuck a few under her arm and steal them for her apartment, we saw only one lucky guest bestowed with the coveted *V.F.* party accessory: chef Keller, whose creations (smoked-salmon cones, date-flan bites) stopped at least a few conversations due to overstuffed (and elated) mouths.